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"Cyborg the Barbarian" is the fourth episode of season four and the overall 43rd episode of the Teen Titans series.

Plot[]

On a bright and sunny day, Cyborg is in the process of upgrading the Titans Tower living room with a number of high-tech paraphernalia including by not limited to megaphonic sound systems, an ultraplasma display flatscreen, a phase-shielded amp, and, the pièce de ré·sis·tance, a factory-new copy of the supposedly mythological gaming system, the Game Station XL...and a fully automated, ultra-efficient waffle maker of his own invention. Cyborg is proudly presenting the new technology to his friends when Robin expresses skepticism, seeing as how there's not much use for such bombastic equipment in the Titans' crime-fighting endeavors. However, Cyborg insists that his upgrades are purely essential, claiming that the future waits for no one. Just before he can further prove his point by activating the new equalizer, he suddenly vanishes from the face of the Earth with a lightning zap, leaving the rest of the Titans in surprise and Beast Boy feeling the need to point out that he had nothing to do with it before anybody starts pointing fingers.

Cyborg reappears and drops out of the sky onto a battlefield about to be caught in the crossfire between two formidable hordes: on the right, fierce barbarian warriors. And on the left, green gruesome slime monsters. While the hordes fight to the death, Cyborg takes cover and uses his sensors to figure out exactly where he is. Much to his surprise, he has been zapped 5,000 years into the distant past (3,000 BC to be precise). He is found by one of the barbarian warriors known as Krall, who mistakes him for one of them and demands he fights along with the rest of the warriors against the green gruesomes.

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Krall and Sarasim

However, all Cyborg wants is to keep out of the way, in fear that, in accordance to his knowledge of the Sci-Fi genre, any action on his part may dangerously alter the future. Cyborg uses the carnage as cover to escape in a hurry when he sees one warrior making quick work of a whole group of gruesomes with only two swords, but the warrior is blindsided by one and it stands before them. Krall charges to the rescue with a drawn sword and is knocked away hard. Just when the warrior is about to be finished off by the gruesome with its scythe-like raptorial leg, Cyborg refuses to allow these foul beasts to continue their reign of terror and interferes, blocking the attack and splattering the gruesome with one punch. With the warrior's life saved, Cyborg extends the hand of friendship to the warrior, but they draw out two vambrace daggers to shred down another gruesome attempting another blindside. With both warriors ready to continue the battle, they slaughter the gruesome horde left and right with their own four hands. When they find themselves each completely surrounded, he ends up defeating all the gruesomes in a matter of seconds with his sonic cannon, leaving only one standing. Krall blocks off Cyborg's attack, preferring to handle this one personally. When he is bested yet again, Cyborg proceeds with the kill blow. To top off the night, when Cyborg congratulates the warrior he rescued on their exceptional skill and valor in the battle, the warrior removes their helmet, revealing themselves to be a beautiful woman by the name of Sarasim, the leader of the barbarian tribe.

Cyborg is welcomed into the tribe with open arms, but still wishes to understand how he became temporally displaced. Sarasim admits that she doesn't know how Cyborg arrived and declares that he has been sent by the "ancient ones" to aid in their battle against the attacking gruesomes and until they decide to send him back from whence he came, he will stay as their guest, offering all their hospitality. He is reluctant to stay because this is not his time, but Sarasim refuses to believe such a thing. To this end, she takes Krall's sword and presents it to Cyborg, declaring him the new champion of her people for his bravery, selfless heroism in the face of evil, and tremendous strength against overwhelming odds. Despite Cyborg's hesitance to accept such a mantle, he takes the sword to cheers of the other warriors. However, this doesn't change the fact that the battle put a massive drain on his power reserves and there are no recharging stations in this time period. In response to Cyborg's need for energy (albeit not really grasping his meaning), Sarasim brings forth a magnificent feast of cured meats, to which Cyborg gladly accepts. However, Cyborg's acceptance of the Champion's Title happens much to Krall's chagrin, who had repeatedly failed miserably in attempting to vanquish at least one gruesome.

Later that night, he secretly ventures into a cave. It soon transpires that Krall is in fact the instigator behind the gruesomes' attack: He had woken a witch from a cursed sleep to use her magic to establish himself as the champion of his people, but her wish-granting in an effort to serve her master does nothing of the sort. While the creatures she sent were defeated, they were not by Krall's hand. At first, Krall wished her to make him a hero and she sent bloodthirsty monsters he cannot vanquish. This time, he wishes for the strength to defeat them and she instead summons another warrior with the strength to vanquish them with ease by dragging Cyborg from his timeline. Enraged over his failure that has made Cyborg the Champion and him the fool, Krall commands the witch to remedy the situation. The witch, secretly unwilling to serve him, has twisted his every command as a subtle way of rebellion against him. to this end, when he leaves, the witch quietly warns him that while he is loyal to him, every wish has a price to pay.

The next day, Cyborg unsuccessfully tries to recharge his batteries with a kit-bashed dynamo when Sarasim visits him. He is mezmerized by how different Sarasim looks without her armor and she explains that she and her people may be warriors, but they are still a proud civilization. This prompts her to ask as to why Cyborg hasn't removed his as well and he simply tells her that his armor really doesn't come off. Sarasim sees this a burden Cyborg must carry; being a warrior every second of every day, which he says is just something to get used to. When she notices Cyborg's kit-bashed dynamo, he explains it's supposed to restore the power he lost from his sonic blasts and she assumes that he needs more food that she'd be happy to provide. However, Cyborg has to elaborate that his situation is dire because he physically can't survive in such a primitive environment. He explains that his efforts against the gruesomes were simply a gesture of goodwill and that he has his own time and his own battles to seek out. To this end, he decides that the sword is a cultural treasure that belongs with her. Sarasim insists that the sword is his to keep and gives him a tour of her village to soak in her own culture before eventually seeking his own. Upon seeing how prosperous Sarasim and her people are, he comes to care for them as much as she does, declaring that it truly is something worth fighting for. Up on the outer wall, she explains that she used to love the twilight of the setting sun before the invaders first appeared. With the ever-increasing danger of the gruesome attacks, the sunset only brings fear for their survival. The fear of their inevitable defeat had nearly consumed them for it not have been the arrival of Cyborg. Just before they can share a kiss, a meteorite crashes onto their spot. These meteorites turn out to be more gruesomes landing square inside the village's perimeter. Outnumbered and surprised, the villagers prepare for battle. Sarasim leads the assault without her armor, informing Cyborg that a true warrior needs no armor. He tries to take them out with more sonics, but cannot fire a single blast since his dwindling power supply must be conserved for his own survival. Fighting them head on fails this time until one warrior throws him a spare sword. Even with an old-fashioned arsenal, Cyborg is outmatched against so many gruesomes. Outnumbered and outmatched, the villagers prepare to face certain doom. However, Cyborg refuses to accept defeat and sets his sights on the dam which blocks the nearby river. He smashes hard at the support and floods the whole field, dissolving and washing away all gruesomes, swiftly defeating them yet again, but losing a considerably substantial layer of armor on his left hand. Once again he is hailed as the village's hero, but he retreats to his dwelling.

When he is once again visited by Sarasim, she notices the currently irreparable damage to his hand and asks why he doesn't join the merriment of the other warriors who wish to honor him in his latest stroke of heroism. As much as he would love to, Cyborg confesses that the longer he enjoys the company of Sarasim and her people, the more emotionally attached he'll become, and he knows he can't live in her world for his own good. Sarasim takes this hard since she is so primitive compared to him, but Cyborg explains that it's more complicated than that since he's just too different from her. However, upon taking a closer look at his hand, she protests that he is just like her underneath his armor. She leans in for another kiss, but Cyborg has no choice but to reject it to avoid becoming too attached. When he retreats outside to think through such confusion, he is approached by Krall, ordering him to follow him if he wishes to return to his own time.

Krall takes Cyborg to the witch, stating that he is helping him return home because he does not belong with them (though secretly, he just wants him out of the way to reclaim his champion title). The witch uses her magic to opens a portal in her alter leading strait back to Titans Tower, but just as Cyborg prepares to step through, he sees Krall delighted to see him go as well as the sword Sarasim gifted to him and realizes that he is not only behind Cyborg's temporal displacement, but responsible for the gruesome attacks. Krall pins the blame on the witch and demands Cyborg leave at once, but refuses to leave Sarasim and her people to his mercy. He charges up his sonic cannon for a direct blast, but his reserve pack lacks sufficient power for a single shot. Krall attacks him but finds himself outmatched when he snaps the sword in half, so he demands the witch for more power. The witch responds by conjuring up three gruesomes and they surround Krall, completely engulfing him in their own slime. When he asks what she's doing, she sinisterly responds that she is doing exactly as he has commanded. The gruesomes merge with Krall altogether, mutating him into a hulking samurai slime monster in the exact likeness of the gruesomes. With more than enough strength, Cyborg doesn't stand a ghost of a chance against Krall, especially with his power cell almost completely empty. The witch reminds Cyborg of his home being but a step away, but Krall decides that he now wishes Cyborg to stay to be slain by his new and improved slimy green hand. Krall punches Cyborg through the wall of the mountain and spears his power cell, draining out the last of his power and casting him into the river to drown. Our hero is totally vanquished before being found and salvaged by Sarasim and the others just in time.

Cyborg reawakens by morning to find Sarasim standing over him and with enough power restored to regain consciousness. She reveals that her best and brightest of her warriors studied Cyborg's failed dynamo design enough to build a halfway believable water-driven generator. It works, but only enough to restore 7% of Cyborg's fully repaired power cell. Now fully operational, he loses no time telling her about Krall's treachery, to which she already knows from her scouts who bring word of him leading a gruesome army on their way to the village as they speak. Now fully determined to stay and fight beside her, he helps her people prepare for their darkest hour.

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The tribe's lasting tribute to Cyborg

As night falls, Cyborg dons his own barbarian armor, sword, and shield, ready to face the threat and joins Sarasim on top of her watchtower above the gate to prepare for Krall's genocidal raid. However, in case this battle is indeed their last stand, he feels the need to finally profess his love to her that he should've done before. But before he can finish his sentence, she finally kisses him on the cheek, donning her helmet as she declares that he already has. By the time the sun sets, a thick creepy green fog engulfs the whole village. Sarasim orders her warriors to stand firm, declaring that their war has reached its final night when Krall's evil laugh can be heard from the other side. Sarasim demands that the traitorous Krall shows himself at once and he breaks down the barricaded gate in one fell swoop. As him and his army of gruesomes pour into the village, Cyborg jumps down from the watchtower to join the rest of the warriors in battle. As much as the gruesomes don't stand much of a fighting chance against Cyborg, the effort proves difficult at best since the green fog provides excellent cover for the gruesomes and Krall is plowing his way through the warrior cordon with hardly any effort thanks to his new strength. He sees Cyborg and they approach each other, but Krall leaves him surrounded by dozens of gruesomes. Sarasim jumps down from the watchtower hoping to take revenge on Krall for betraying them with a spear attack, which he blocks. Cyborg sees Sarasim going toe-to-toe against Krall and failing. Krall declares that he may have failed her as a hero, but will triumph as her conqueror. She tries taking a stab at him with her assassin blades, but stands even less of a chance than Cyborg did before against such a powerful foe head on. While the gruesomes keep Cyborg busy, Krall singles out Sarasim and mercilessly batters her to the ground. With Sarasim subdued and awaiting execution, Cyborg activates his sonic cannon and reroutes all remaining power into it for one kill blow at Krall. But before he can fire the shot, he is pulled into a portal in the sky by Raven's telekinetic raven claw and returned straight back into the Titans Tower living room. As his friends stand over him, he charges straight for the portal which closes before he can go back. He frantically tries to make Raven return him to the battle, but she informs him the spell she casted only worked one way. Plus, Beast Boy adds that it's impossibly difficult to lock onto his sonic cannon's frequency from five millennia away. Cyborg is crestfallen to be back home so soon after the promise he made to the warriors who were counting on him in their darkest hour. Heart-wrenching still, he didn't even get to say goodbye to Sarasim.

With his hand repaired and disheartened to be supposedly back where he belongs, Cyborg returns to his quarters, where he frames his armor and sword as a lasting memento. However, Raven visits him with a book that turns out to be a chronicle about the history of Sarasim's tribe and lifts his spirits when she turns to a page with a detailed illustration that the warriors got through the battle just fine and Sarasim succeeded in vanquishing Krall once and for all. Raven turns the page to reveal their success was because they had help; the only warrior without armor who Raven is able to identify as him. Even though "the ancient ones" decided it was time for him to return home, he was remembered by the tribe as their greatest hero. To that end, Cyborg is depicted without any of his cybernetics or honorary armor, a testimony of the tribe's appreciation of his selfless bravery as the only warrior who needed no armor. Cyborg continues reading the book and ends the episode with him admiring Sarasim one last time.

Characters[]

Main characters[]

Supporting characters[]

Villains[]

Trivia[]

  • When Cyborg is mentioning the dangers of interfering with history, Warp, as a baby, can be seen as part of the image representing time travel.
    • This is actually the second Time Travel episode of the series. The first being "How Long Is Forever" where Starfire traveled 20 years into the future whereas this time, Cyborg was zapped 5,000 years into the past.
  • Raven's line "Evil beware. We have waffles" is quoted to be one of the best lines in Teen Titans history.
    • Ironically, this is the second gag centered around Raven involving Waffles. The first time was in Crash when Cyborg says that they should all go out for waffles, followed by asking Raven if she likes waffles, to which she replies "More than life itself."
  • This is the first time Raven lets any Titan read one of her books.
  • This marks the third time Raven has demonstrated her elusive empathic side and the second time to have been the one to lift Cyborg's spirits in a frankly heartbreaking situation.
    • The very first general time was at the end of The Beast Within when Beast Boy's humanity and good nature is restored, and she was able to not only forgive him for his savage behavior (as well as getting caught in the crossfire between him and Adonis while under the same curse) while under the control of the werebeast, but also explain to him that having that beast inside of him doesn't make him a monster, but rather, knowing when to unleash it is what makes him a hero.
    • The last time she was there for Cyborg was in Car Trouble when Cyborg lost his beloved T-Car twice (the first time to two joyriding jokers and the second to an electrokinetic supervillain) and she was not only willing to help him get it back, but she also helped him rebuild it when he encouraged him that what made his car special was not the parts themselves, but exactly what he gave from within to make it special to him.

Cultural references[]

  • The "monkeys ruling the future" line is a reference to the classic sci-fi apocalypse series Planet of the Apes.
  • The video game sequence is a parody of the classic arcade game Frogger.
  • The title of the episode is a play on the title Conan The Barbarian.

Goofs[]

  • When Raven pops in to say: "Evil beware, we have waffles", the chakra ruby on her forehead is missing.

Gallery[]

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Transcript[]

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